Category: Melvern

MELVERN TOURNAMENT

The first Sunflower Team Series event of 2019 was held on Melvern Lake on March 23rd. It was going to be a cold, wet day with the forcast calling for light rain and winds. There was a great turnout with 48 boats. I guess everyone is looking forward to the fishing season.

With the water temp in the low 40’s, the lake was going to fish hard. We started in one of our favorite early season spots, which two other boats decided too. It is very common with this many boats to have multiple teams start in same area. We fished the area hard without a bite. We moved around the lake trying different techniques and areas without a bite. Then we decided to move shallow and throw square bills. It didn’t take long to hook up. I thought I had a big one. Once it came up to the surface, I noticed it was the wrong species. A really big drum. Fished a lot of different pockets around the lake without much luck. We did have a couple of more bites, but no hookups. Finished the day without a keeper. It was a tough first tournament. The best thing was getting to spend the day with one of my sons. There were 22 fish weighed in by 10 boats. Great job to the winners and the teams that weighed in fish. Also, to all the anglers that toughed it out on Melvern. Next Sunflower event is on El Dorado April 13.

Tackle Review: Z Man Finesse TRD

I would like to talk about one of the best baits and techniques over the last couple of years. I thought for awhile that it is maybe the only bait you needed. But, I learned that it is just another technique you need to add to your arsenal. The Ned Rig; it is an incredible bait. Some people cut stickbaits in half and use a light mushroom style jighead. I started using Z Man products. I like the Z Man Finesse TRD and Finesse Mushroomz Jig head.

The first time I fished and introduced it to my boys was a trip out to a western Kansas lake. I had only two packages of PB&J and 1/15oz. jighead. Twins were like “There’s not much to it.” We were actually pre-fishing for an upcoming tournament. It didn’t take long for the boys to fall in love with this little bait. The twins caught four smallmouth over 3 pounds and three big wipers in the 5 to 7 pound range. They wouldn’t let me fish it on the trip. They wanted the bait all to themselves. That week on four trips, we caught 300 fish. The boys tournament was cancelled due to bad weather.

But, I had an upcoming tournament on Melvern so I was ready with two spinning rods rigged with Z Man Finesse TRD PB&J and 1/15oz. Finesse Mushroomz Jig head. I had one rig with Sunline Sniper FC 7lb test and the other with Sunline Braided. I had found some fish that Thursday with the Ned rig. So, when the tournament started, I headed to my best spot. I pulled up to the spot and a couple of casts in, I caught a keeper smallmouth. The next cast, I had a good largemouth bass take my TRD off a hanging limb. After 10 more minutes, I had a limit with two over 17 inches. It was a great start.  My non-boater had moved to the bait, and he had two fish. We would go on to catch 45 fish that day with my best five being 14.97lb.

Since then we have caught a lot of fish and even one of my son’s personnel best 6.02lbs largemouth was on TRD using Powertackle SPN43-70 rod with Sunline Sniper FC 7lb. Powertackle rods are known for flipping big bass into the boat down in Texas. Their spinning rod has incredible action and feel for the Ned rig and other finesse baits. It is the only spinning rod in my boat.

The Z Man Finesse TRD comes in 22 different colors. I keep it simple, and stay with about 4 colors PB&J, The Deal, Mud Minnow and Green Pumpkin. I like to start with PB&J early in the season as it imitates a crawfish. Then when fish start keying in on baitfish, I will throw The Deal and Mud Minnow. Green Pumpkin is just a great color to imitate bluegill.

The most important part of this presentation is the size of jig you use. I use 1/15oz. most of the time. If I want to swim it or have a faster presentation, I will upgrade to 1/10oz. or even the 1/6oz. Now, if you fish from the bank or ponds, use the smallest jighead 1/20oz. and 1/15oz. This bait will catch any species.  We have caught some really big walleye on it. This is a great bait to use for kids to fish, tournament fisherman, and fun fishing. Everytime I take kids fishing for the first time, this bait is always tied on their pole. So, next time you go fishing pick up some Z Man Finesse TRD and Mushroomz Jighead and give it a try. It is an incredible bait.

 

Sunflower Team Series on Melvern

The fourth Sunflower Team Series event of the year was on Melvern. Nick was my partner for the event. The day before the tournament, we found a couple of spots, but one of the spots Nick lost a good keeper. We didn’t fish the spot very hard, so we were going to start there. It was about a 100 yard stretch one point to another. On the day of the tournament, we fished down the spot throwing topwater, and I hooked up with a good fish on a spook. Nick was able to scoop up the fish with the net. Great start!  We fished 15 minutes and already had one keeper. There was another spot the day before I had seen a huge smallmouth. With no one fishing the spot yet, I thought lets fish it fast and then go back through the spot that we started on. Nick caught one nonkeeper off the standing timber. Just then another boat pulled up on the spot we started. So I told Nick, “Let’s go back down to the other point since there is a boat on the opposite point.” We caught three non-keepers on soft plastics. Most of the fish were coming off of a laydown or stumps in the water. We started to fish the wood really slow. I would throw topwater a little while Nick threw plastics.  Then we would switch. I was getting a little worried about the weather as some really dark clouds had moved in. Getting the rain gear on, I was wondering if we need to go in. Then about 5 minute later, it was through. Nick was throwing a whopper popper around the laydown. I noticed a dark spot behind his bait. My soft plastic was just under Nick’s bait. Then the dark spot disappeared. Just then Nick had an explosion on his bait, but it missed. Then I noticed my line moving, I set the hook.  It was a good smallmouth.  We landed my fish, and it was keeper number two. A couple of casts later, Nick hooked up on the whopper popper.  It was probably about a 2 pound smallmouth. I told him to take his time.  Just then, it jumped and threw the bait back to the boat. Nick was very upset, but that is topwater or anything with treble hooks. After fishing another couple hours on the spot, we moved. I have learned that in big tournaments, if you find keepers at a spot, you better pick the spot apart before you leave because someone else will move in on the spot. We fished for about an hour around the lake without any luck. So, we headed back to the spot we started because there were two boats on the bank. There was a little bank further down that looked good. Right when we stopped to fish, Nick’s second cast, he hooked a smallmouth.  It jumped, and it was a keeper. Nick was so excited!  He took his time, and we landed the fish. Three keepers!  We need two more fish. Then, I hooked up with a big fish, and told Nick “Get the net.  This is a good fish.” It was a big fish, but it was the wrong species.  A walleye about 23 inches. First thing Nick said was “Mom would love to eat that.” I threw it back, and said I really didn’t want to mess with cleaning it today. I was watching the bank trying to see if the other boats would leave. After they left, we moved back to the laydown. Nick was able to catch two non-keepers before the tournament was over. We had 3 fish for 6.14 pounds, and good for 9th place out of 33 boats. It was awesome to get in the top 10, and with just one more fish we may have gotten a check. Next event is on El Dorado on July 14th. Kyle and I will fish Wilson on August 18. Hopefully we can catch some fish and maybe get another top 10 finish. It has been an awesome season fishing with the twins. We have learned so much on how to fish tournaments. It is totally different then just going fishing.

Kansas Bass Youth Qualifier & Championship

On Sunday, May 6, the twins had two tournaments to fish on Melvern for the Kansas Bass Nation Youth Trail. They were making up their 4th Qualifier tournament that was supposed to be on Milford, but due to weather in April, it was cancelled. The Qualifier was going to be from 7am to 11am. The lake was cut in half so we could only fish from West State Park straight across the lake to the south and west part of the lake. This would save the east area and dam for the championship. It was going to be a very nice day to fish.  In fact, maybe a little too nice as the wind wasn’t going to blow much. Boys and I had done our homework for this event pre-fishing 4 times. We had found 4 good spots; two for the Qualifier and the other spots for the Championship. Being spring, fish are moving around everywhere. During the cold weather, we were catching fish in prespawn mood about two weeks ago. Then the weather warmed up, and the fish decided to start spawning.  The fishing had gotten harder. The last time the twins and I pre-fished, it was tough as the Kansas Buddy Bass tournament was taking place. We had only caught one keeper, but we were getting a lot of bites. I told the boys the fish are picking our baits up and moving them off the beds. It would be our best spot in the championship.

Kansas Youth Bass Qualifier #4

We decided to start in Turkey in back of some of the pockets. Which the Friday before, I had a couple of bites pre-fishing. Fishing was going to be tough with the high school and another adult tournament fishing the day before. I told the boys to start with crankbaits and topwater. Never know this time of year, you can sometimes get a big fish to hit something by fishing slowly across the surfaces. We fished it for about a hour. I told the twins, “Lets go to one of our best spots and see if we can catch one there”. It had not produced for a couple of weeks, but we were hoping the fish had pulled back up on it. The twins both started with plastics on the spot dragging them slowly back to the boat. All of sudden, Kyle set the hook right next to the boat in 9 feet of water. The big smallmouth jumped right out of the water next to the boat. I was getting the net out of the locker telling him “Don’t reel!  Just keep your line tight.” We finally got him in the net, and after a couple of high fives, put number one in the boat. Kyle would hook up with another smaller non-keeper a couple of casts later. I decided to move out a little deeper so they could fish the 9 feet range better as we were seeing a lot of fish on the depthfinder in that range. Kyle would catch 2 more non-keepers before we moved on. We had only one hour left before weigh-in, and decided to check a couple of other spots that had produced for me in the past. Never know, maybe we could find a spot for the afternoon championship. We weren’t able to catch any more fish, and had the one smallmouth to weigh-in. All the teams had a hard time with just half the field catching fish. A lot of teams were saving their spots for the championship. Two teams had two fish, so I knew it would be hard to win with one fish. Twins ended up tied for second with 3.65lb, but having big fish took second place. They had a lot of confidence going into the championship. The championship wouldn’t start until 1pm.

Kansas Youth Bass Championship

I knew we were going to start at our best spot on the lake. It had not fished very well the last couple of weeks. Twins started with plastics slowly dragging them along the bottom. They caught about 4 non-keepers before we got in the back of a pocket which had fish moving around. Kyle casted up to a stickup very shallow and his line took off to the side. It was our first keeper and largemouth of the day. We fished for another 30 minutes without catching another fish. I decided to move to the spot that a week before I had caught the good largemouth. We pulled up to the spot and Kyle hooked up right away with a keeper. Both the twins would catch three non-keepers and missed some fish. We were fishing back and forth, then Kyle hooked up with another keeper. Had three keepers with 2 hours to go. After another 30 minutes, we moved to the spot we caught the big smallmouth. We were hoping to catch another big fish, but we fished for 45 minutes without a bite. I looked at the twins and said “Let’s go to a spot that maybe we could catch another keeper.” Idling out of the cove I decided to go back to the spot that we caught the two keepers. It would be the best decision of the day. I told the boys on the drive over this could be a champion move. I pulled up to the best spot. Nick’s second cast, he hooked up with the fourth keeper largemouth of the day. After landing it, celebrated, and had 20 minutes to go. I told the boys, “We need one more.” Which wouldn’t happen.  It was a hard ride back to the boat ramp. Pulling up to

the boat ramp all the kids started to ask who had fish. Another boat had 4 keepers, so it would be between us and them. It was going to be close as they had 4 smallmouth and we had 4 largemouth. They weighed first having 7.57lb.  We were next. Gulp.  Our weight was 7.83 pounds. The twins won the Championship! It was close, and both teams deserved to go to the nationals. I was so proud of the boys and how hard they fished. Kyle was on today catching 4 keepers through the day. Nick never quit, kept fishing hard, and caught the final fish that would win the tournament. They worked so hard for the Championship. This July ,the twins will represent Kansas at Bassmaster National Junior Championship in Tennessee.

Melvern Sunflower Team Series Tournament

Sunflower Team Series had their first event; Kyle and I were ready. It was a cold morning as we waited at the ramp with the other 39 boats for take-off. The wind was going to blow hard out of the NW about 20 mph. That was going to make it hard to fish our best spot. But, we were going to go there and fish as long as we could. Kyle was throwing a finesse bait and I started with a Jerkbait. We fished two hours in the spot with only 1 bite, and we did watch another boat land a keeper in the area. I knew they were there, but something had changed. Kyle was also getting very cold, and it was hard to fish in the wind.

We decided to move to another spot out of the wind, so we could fish a little slower and maybe feel a bite. We moved to area that had a lot of secondary points as we could fish multiple spots out of the wind. Everyone else was there too, and there were probably 10 boats or more in the area. I looked at Kyle and said, “Lets do something crazy; go throw square bills in the back of these pockets.” The water temp was 49 to 50 degrees. We fished around in the back of a pocket when we came to a drain, and I hooked up. I had a good smallmouth on, and Kyle was fighting with getting the net out. I told him to take his time; he finally got it out and netted our first and only keeper of the day.  It weighted 2.34lb. We would catch 3 more fish on square bills in the pockets. Kyle would catch 1 smallmouth on a secondary point with a finesse bait to end the day. I thought we fished hard for the conditions, and was so proud of Kyle.  He never said anything negative about the weather and just kept fishing. We would end up 16th place out of 39 teams; not a bad start. There were about 20 boats that didn’t come in with a keeper. The next Sunflower Team series event will be at El Dorado April 14. Thanks to Rick and Kip for putting on a great event and letting me fish with my boys. Nick will fish the 3rd Event at Wilson with me.

March Bass fishing on Melvern

I had an upcoming tournament on Melvern, so the twins and I decided to go prefish. It was a cloudy day with a little bit of wind. It didn’t take very long to hook up on my first three casts. We caught 12, lost 4, and we had the best luck on finesse baits and Jerkbaits. There was only one area we could get a bite. It is funny to watch the video and notice how long I would let the jerkbait set. It was cool to have Kyle catch a jerkbait fish. We are hoping the fish will be there next week when Kyle and I fish the first Sunflower Team Series Tournament.